This 2005 movie takes place in Rwanda, during the same period treated so deftly in Hotel Rwanda. And as much as I like Hotel Rwanda, I think this movie is even better.
Beyond the Gates takes place at a missionary school in Rwanda. The fantastic John Hurt is the priest there. A man of great faith, and a little world-weary, he has been through a lot of strife in Rwanda for decades administering to his flock. So when the current ethnic strife starts, he does not seem to alarmed.
Hugh Dancy is a young man that is at the school to help teach. He has a optimism about the world, and his ability to help improve it. He also has a slight prejudice about him, in that he thinks he can take care of the Rwandans, even as the ethnic cleansing starts. the movie chronicles his descent from optimism to confusion and then to abject fear.
This movie is dirtier than Hotel Rwanda, and less romanticized I think. It has and ending that certainly is not the typical Hollywood ending, but leaves things very untidy.
The acting is great, by all the main characters, and it was filmed in Rwanda, at the school where these events actually took place. Many of the crew were people who survived that time in that place.
Beyond the Gates is excellent film-making. And it leaves you wondering how do we all stop this violence that permeates not just Africa, but the whole world.
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